Max Sieben Baucus (b. December 11, 1941) is a Democratic member of the U.S. Senate from the state of Montana. Baucus was first elected to the Senate in 1978.

On April 23, 2013, Baucus announced that he would not be seeking reelection in 2014.[1]

Based on analysis of multiple outside rankings, Baucus is a more moderate left of center Democratic Party vote. As a result, he may break with the Democratic Party line more than his fellow members.

Biography

Baucus was born in Helena, Montana. He attended Carleton College in Minnesota for a year before transferring to Stanford University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1964. After earning his undergraduate degree, he attended Stanford Law School, graduating with a Juris Doctor in 1967.[2]

Career

Below is an abbreviated outline of Baucus's academic, professional and political career:[3]

Issues

IRS targeting

On May 10, 2013, news broke that various branches of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had specifically targeted conservative groups' applications for tax-exempt status. This began during the tea party surge in 2010. The agency was separating tax-exempt applications by searching for political terms such as "tea party" and "patriot." In June 2011, an IRS official was briefed on these transgressions and asked that this practice end. The flagging continued, however, when the criteria was changed in January 2012 to look out for groups educating on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.[6]

The targeting included allegations that tea party groups were forced to provide information not asked of other tax exempt groups. Examples of this included requests for donor information, Facebook posts, resumes and political intentions of group officials and connections to other groups.[7][8]

On May 16, IRS Commissioner Steven Miller announced his resignation. He still testified at the hearings the next day.[9]

As a result of this scandal, Republicans and many Democratic members of Congress, including Baucus, publicly called for a deeper investigation into these matters. The House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on May 17 during which it was disclosed that the Obama administration was made aware of the targeting on June 4, 2012.[10]

On May 20, Senators Max Baucus and Orrin Hatch sent a written inquiry regarding the process for how the agency reviewed applications for tax exempt status. The letter also requested any correspondence between White House officials and the IRS mentioning 501(c) organizations.[11]

During the May 22 House committee hearing on the issue, Lois Lerner, head of the IRS tax-exempt organizations office, declined to answer questions citing her Fifth Amendment right.[12] The next day, May 23, Lerner was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation after Senators John McCain and Carl Levin called on IRS officials to place her on suspension.[13] Lerner retired on September 23, 2013.[14]

Specific votes

Fiscal Cliff

Baucus voted for the fiscal cliff compromise bill, which made permanent most of the Bush tax cuts originally passed in 2001 and 2003 while also raising tax rates on the highest income levels. The bill was passed in the Senate by a 89/8 vote on January 1, 2013.[15]

2013 Senate Budget Proposal

On March 23, after an all-night debate that ended just before 5 a.m., by a 50 to 49 vote the Democratically controlled Senate approved its first budget in four years.[16] No Republicans voted for the Senate plan, and four Democrats opposed it. All four are from red states and are up for re-election in 2014.[16] Baucus was one of the four Democrats who voted against the budget proposal.

The approved plan is a $3.7 trillion budget for 2014 and would provide a fast track for passage of tax increases, trim spending modestly and leave the government still deeply in the red for the next decade.[16]

The approval of a budget in the Senate began the process of setting up contentious, and potentially fruitless, negotiations with the Republican-controlled House starting in April to reconcile two vastly different plans for dealing with the nation’s economic and budgetary problems.

The House plan brought the government’s taxes and spending into balance by 2023 with cuts to domestic spending even below the levels of automatic across-the-board cuts for federal programs, and it ordered up dramatic and controversial changes to Medicare and the tax code.[16]

The Senate plan differed greatly, and included $100 billion in upfront infrastructure spending to bolster the economy and calls for special fast-track rules to overhaul the tax code and raise $975 billion over 10 years in legislation that could not be filibustered. Even with that tax increase and prescribed spending cuts, the plan approved by the Senate would have left the government with a $566 billion annual deficit in 10 years, and $5.2 trillion in additional debt over that window.[16]

Expanded background checks on gun sales

On April 17, 2013, the U.S. Senate took a vote on and defeated a measure that would have expanded federal background checks for firearms purchases.[17] The vote was 54-46, with supporters falling six votes short of the required 60-vote threshold.[18] Baucus was one of the 4 DemocraticSenators who voted against the amendment.[19]

Full history

To view the full congressional electoral history for Max Baucus, click [show] to expand the section.

2002

On November 5, 2002, Max Baucus won re-election to the United States Senate. He defeated Mike Taylor (R), Stan Jones (L) and Bob Kelleher (G) in the general election.[21]

U.S. Senate, Montana General Election, 2002

Party

Candidate

Vote %

Votes

Democratic

Max Baucus

62.7%

204,853

Republican

Mike Taylor

31.7%

103,611

Libertarian

Stan Jones

3.2%

10,420

Green

Bob Kelleher

2.3%

7,653

Total Votes

326,537

1996

On November 5, 1996, Max Baucus won re-election to the United States Senate. He defeated Dennis Rehberg (R), Becky Shaw (T) and Stephen Heaton (T) in the general election.[22]

U.S. Senate, Montana General Election, 1996

Party

Candidate

Vote %

Votes

Democratic

Max Baucus

49.6%

201,935

Republican

Dennis Rehberg

44.7%

182,111

Reform

Becky Shaw

4.7%

19,276

Natural Law

Stephen Heaton

1%

4,168

Total Votes

407,490

1990

On November 5, 1996, Max Baucus won re-election to the United States Senate. He defeated Allen Kolstad (R) and Westley Deitchler (L) in the general election.[23]

U.S. Senate, Montana General Election, 1996

Party

Candidate

Vote %

Votes

Democratic

Max Baucus

68.1%

217,563

Republican

Allen Kolstad

29.4%

93,836

Libertarian

Westley Deitchler

2.5%

7,937

Total Votes

319,336

1984

On November 6, 1984, Max Baucus won re-election to the United States Senate. He defeated Chuck Cozzens (R) and Neil Halprin (L) in the general election.[24]

U.S. Senate, Montana General Election, 1984

Party

Candidate

Vote %

Votes

Democratic

Max Baucus

56.9%

215,704

Republican

Chuck Cozzens

40.7%

154,308

Libertarian

Neil Halprin

2.4%

9,143

Total Votes

379,155

1978

On November 7, 1978, Max Baucus won election to the United States Senate. He defeated Larry Williams (R) in the general election.[25]

U.S. Senate, Montana General Election, 1978

Party

Candidate

Vote %

Votes

Democratic

Max Baucus

55.7%

160,353

Republican

Larry Williams

44.3%

127,589

Total Votes

287,942

Campaign donors

Comprehensive donor information for Baucus is available dating back to 2002. Based on available campaign finance records, Baucus raised a total of $6,719,728 during that time period. This information was last updated on April 24, 2013.[26]

2013

National Journal vote ratings

Each year, National Journal publishes an analysis of how liberally or conservatively each member of Congress voted, as compared to other members, in the previous year. More information about the analysis process can be found on the vote ratings page.

2012

According to the data released in 2013, Baucus was ranked the 45th most liberal senator during 2012.[30]

2011

According to the data released in 2012, Max Baucus was ranked the 45th most liberal senator during 2011.[31]

Voting with party

2013

Max Baucus voted with the Democratic Party 77.8% of the time, which ranked 50th among the 52 Senate Democratic members as of June 2013.[32]

Lifetime missed votes

According to the website GovTrack, Baucus missed 276 of 12,209 roll call votes from Feb 1979 to Apr 2013, which is 2.3% of votes during that period. This is worse than the median of 1.7% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving.[33]

Congressional staff salaries

2011

The website Legistorm compiles staff salary information for members of Congress. Baucus paid his congressional staff a total of $2,616,259 in 2011. He ranked 19th on the list of the lowest paid Democratic Senatorial Staff Salaries and he ranked 54th overall of the lowest paid Senatorial Staff Salaries in 2011. Overall, Montana ranked 28th in average salary for senatorial staff. The average U.S. Senate congressional staff was paid $2,529,141.70 in fiscal year 2011.[34]

Net worth

2011

Based on congressional financial disclosure forms and calculations made available by OpenSecrets.org - The Center for Responsive Politics, Baucus's net worth as of 2011 was estimated between -$82,996 and $446,998. That averages to $182,001, which is lower than the average net worth of Democratic Senators in 2011 of $20,795,450. His average net worth increased by 114% from 2010.[35]

2010

Based on congressional financial disclosure forms and calculations made available by OpenSecrets.org - The Center for Responsive Politics, Baucus' net worth as of 2010 was estimated between $10,010 and $160,000. That averages to $85,005, which is lower than the average net worth of Democratic Senators in 2010 of $19,383,524.[36]

Recent news

This section displays the most recent stories in a Google news search for the term Max + Baucus + Montana + Senate

All stories may not be relevant to this page due to the nature of the search engine.

Loading...

Personal

Baucus has one son, Zeno, by his first wife, Ann Geracimos. Baucus and Geracimos divorced in 1982.[37] He was married to Wanda Minge from 1984-2009, and married Melodee Hanes in 2011.